Plaque awarded for pioneering computer creation

A blue plaque has been unveiled marking the creation of a computer in 1949 which set the standards for how today's computers are still used.

The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator – better known as Edsac - was the first computer built at the University of Cambridge.

It was the first practical machine of its kind which could hold both instructions and data in the same memory.

Civic charity Cambridge Past, Present & Future unveiled the plaque which will be installed on the David Attenborough Building where the machine was originally built.

Although not the first computer built in the UK (Manchester University's experimental Manchester Baby preceded it by 11 months), it was the first fully functional computer to be used practically.

It was thousands of times faster than the mechanical calculators of the period, the university said.

Edsac was developed by computer science pioneer Maurice Wilkes - dubbed the "father" of British computing - and his team in Cambridge.

Following work on developing radar during World War Two, Sir Maurice returned to Cambridge to begin designing the machine that would become Edsac.

Weighing two tons, it took up a whole room at the university's then-mathematical laboratory, now the department of computer science and technology.

Prof Alastair Beresford, head of the department of computer science, said: "Both the machine and the science it enabled were truly groundbreaking.

"The legacy of this work can be seen across the department today."

The Cambridge Blue Plaque Scheme recognises people and events that have made a significant impact on the area.

Mike Hakata, chief executive of Cambridge Past, Present & Future, said: "Every day, billions of people benefit from technologies whose origins can be traced to pioneering computing work carried out in Cambridge.

"The Edsac represents a turning point in that story, when computing moved from theory into practical reality."

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